The Eternal Echo
by AtomicKokoro
Summary: Jiro has a promise, and he intends to keep it. Four years later, he doesn't know if he can. One-Shot


The Eternal Echo

**Storyline**

Jiro has a promise, and he intends to keep it. Four years later, he doesn't know if he can.

I approched a cave. The walls coated in moist slime. I cupped my hands over my mouth and yelled a promise I intended to keep.

Four years later, I lied on my bed, my eyes salty from sobbing. I wasn't sure if I was going to continue on. I had spent all my life, accoplishing nothing but goals, and that had left my life to emptyness. All those I had loved before are away and gone. I had become so much more stronger, and that was my only goal.

But even that for a goal, let my life to only a repetitive state: Wake, eat, train, eat, train, eat, bed, wake, eat, train, eat, train, eat, bed. Nothing else for any day. No one bothered to even see me anymore, because they had a life to live. A life I considered much to relaxing. But the life I had now was no better.

Today, I had realized I had no life to live. There was nothing to talk about, no one to share it with. If everything had been the way it was before, I wouldn't be lying here, sobbing from loneliness and fear. I felt so weak from it, but I couldn't find any other way to relieve myself from it. It was just to painful to bottle inside and keep away.

But hadn't that been all my life: pain, fear, loneliness, sadness, rage? Yes, there had been days where I had smiled and laughed, ran and played, but that was before the worst had happened. My life had changed three times, to close together for me to keep my sanity. Kluke said I had been doing well, for someone like me.

She doesn't know my pain. She thinks I'm doing well, I'm not. She's with Andropov now, and everyone else is trying to live the life they want, while I have to deal without the one I want: the one before the attack.

I wanted my family back so bad! I wanted a life without loneliness, or pain, or sadness, or rage. But, now that I think about, I was the one who sent myself to live this sort of hell, but in the mountains, alone. Sei offered me a place to stay, but I refused and lived up here.

So, what is it I really want to live life again? I knew the answer to the question. I wanted love. I wanted someone to hold, someone to hold me. Someone to share my life with, someone to talk to in the morning. Someone to share my accomplishments with and all it's prizes.

Before that one had been Kluke, but now I see she was meant to be with Andropov. Then, who am I to live with? Am I destined to never love, to never have someone to hold, to talk to, to share my accomplishments, my prizes, my life?

I choked back a sob at the idea. What life was there to live, if there was no love in it?

No more.

Hours of running and crying passed. I don't know where I was, or where I was going. What was I going to do, how I was going to get back, who I was even passing. I remember seeing Shu's face for a breif second, before everything became a blur again. I stopped, tired for one of the first times I had been after my two years of training.

I had stopped before a cave, one I had been to before. I could bearly remember what it was, why I had been here before. I approched silently and listened closely. Drips of water from above the the cave into puddles below. My breath could be seen and heard from the farthest ends of the cave.

I sat before the mouth of the cave, drowning myself back into my thoughts of what love I would find, what life I would live.

A tender breeze blew against my back. It was so gental, but the feeling behind it was so overpowering. I couldn't take anymore questions and hopelessness. It was too painful!

I drew my sword from it's hold and pressed the blade against the ground in front of me. I picked the blade off the the ground, tears spilling down my cheeks. Had I ever really thought of this before? Had I become too racked on the inside to continue my life anymore? What life what there to live for me!

I brought the sword to my chest and took a deep breath. I had made my choice.

Then an echo traced my voice from when I ten, from so far back when I had a dream, a goal to accomplish. My mouth gapped at the words, silver streaks of water drawn on my face.

The echo had changed me so much, had given me a reason to live for. The words that I had spoken so long ago had affected me four years later. This was my eternal echo.

I have to tell you now, everyone has an eternal echo, whether it's good or bad. I can be heard in the depths of caves or in the cries of newborn babies. I had heard of such a thing from Kluke, when she was telling me that words we speak now can affect us forty years in the future. And these were the words of my eternal echo.

It might have changed so much, or it might have changed so little. I wasn't sure if I was the only one to hear this voice behind me, or if the whole world could hear it.

I broke into a sob and placed my sword back into it's hold. I would have to keep trying. I would have to keep my promise. I would keep the echoing words I had yelled into the cave that one day. I got up and continued back, my mind made up. I was to travel the world, now.

Maybe Shu would want to join me...

_A little boy approched the top of the cave. He was dressed in a green tunic and navy blue leggings, a sword tied around his waist. He looked back over his shoulder to his friends, who were too busy doing whatever to notice he had gone._

_He skidded down the steep, dirt path beside the cave and made his way to the mouth of the cave. The cave was very dark with moist slime around the walls of the cave. Water dripped in the corners and his breath could be heard from the deepest parts of the cave. He smiled and looked at the top of the cave to make sure no one was there._

_He looked back down into the dark cave and cupped his hands over the sides of his mouth. He took a deep breath in and shouted into the cave._

_His voice echoed of the walls of the cave until it faded into silence. He turned and trotted back up the side of the cave. The words may have faded in the cave, but they had never faded in his mind._

_Again, he whispered his eternal echo._

"Jina. For you, I will live and I will love."

**A/N: Jina is the name of Jiro's little sister. Just to let you know! Whaddaya think? Got any suggestions for the future? Love it, hate it, wanna read it again? Let me know, please!**

**I was watching episode 31 of Blue Dragon (first season) and I began to wonder how Jiro truely felt on the inside and began to write. So, when Jiro shouted the words kinda took place right after episode 31 but before episode 32 (the first person writing took place after the entire Blue Dragon: Tenkai no Shichi Ryuu season took place), so, yeah. And I kinda got the jist that Jiro and Jina (go figure; they rhyme) were really close, so I thought Jiro would try to make a [second] promise to Jina about how he was going to spend his life, other then being strong (which was also a promise to his dad).**

**I randomly added Shu in there cause I kinda figured that Shu would live somewhere close to Jiro cause I always thought they were best friends, which is also why Jiro decided to ask Shu if he wanted to go around the world with him.**

**You can decide whether Shu and Jiro go around the world or not. Maybe Jiro goes with Kluke and Andropov, or maybe even with Sii (actually, I think Jiro and Sii fell in love after the who Tenkai no Shichi Ryuu series. Or, at least lived together). It's your mind. You can even write a sequal if you want. Or maybe even a prequal? I don't care; just let me know if you write it. I wanna read it!**


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